Fenty Beauty vs Kylie Cosmetics: What’s better?

Celebrity makeup lines have become the ultimate trend recently and Kylie’s and Rihanna’s have dominated the market. If you’re wondering who comes out on top of the battle of beauty baes, continue reading. We will take a look at how they stack up against each other:

Background

The youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenners and new mum, Kylie released her lip kits in November 2015 and they were an immediate sell-out success. As she was famously known for her plump pout she initiated a matte lip trend as her original lip kits included a liquid lip and liner. Her biggest launch was her Holiday 2017 Collection, which made $18 million in one single day!

Rihanna’s cosmetics line Fenty Beauty (after her surname) launched in September 2017 sent the beauty industry into overload after launching her Pro Filt’R foundation produced in 40 different shades. As she was obsessed with makeup from a very early age, she developed the line with luxury conglomerate LVMH, which owns Benefit, Christian Dior and Make Up For Ever, to develop a new brand that would spread the inclusivity across skin tones and gender.

Available products

Initially, Kylie Cosmetics only offered lip kits but now it has branched out into brushes, palettes, concealers and highlighters. However, her liquid lipsticks have often been criticised by numerous beauty bloggers for their drying formula and their high prices. Her products are sold online only or in pop-up shops in the US. If you are based in Europe, apart from shipping fees you will also pay VAT if the goods are worth more than $19, and custom duty as well.

When it comes to Fenty Beauty, there were 40 foundation shades split equally into Light, Medium, Tan and Deep skin tones. The brand’s success is undoubtedly related to the fact that, it has the most diverse consumer base of all. Most of the brand’s customers are African-American and Hispanic, as well as a significant percentage is Asian. White customers are reportedly Fenty Beauty’s smallest shooper group.

In addition, Stunna Lip Paint was marketed as a true red that suits every skin tone. If you like natural enhancement, this range maybe is not for you. The base coverage is full, the eyeshadows and highlighters are intense, and the lip colours pack a punch. You can find Fenty Beauty either online, Harvey Nichols (for those who live in the UK) and Sephora. In terms of price, most of Fenty beauty products are pretty affordable.

Social Stats

Even though Fenty Beauty have not publicly release revenue numbers, an online research firm, Slice Intelligence, indicated that Kylie Cosmetics had the highest yearly sales numbers for 2017. However, Fenty Beauty in its first month on the market, had sales that were five times that of Kylie Cosmetics and 34 percent higher the following month. If these sales continue, it is a matter of months that Fenty Beauty could outstrip Jenner’s empire.

Additionally, it was found that Fenty Beauty shoppers, on average, spend more on makeup than Jenner’s customers. Those who purchased Fenty beauty products reportedly spend an average of $471 per year in the makeup category, while Lip Kit lovers spend around $181 per year on cosmetics.

Beauty Bloggers’ opinion

Bloggers’ opinion for Kylie Cosmetics have been pretty negative overall as most of them have complain about the drying formula and the lack of stock.

However, fans who want to achieve the same caked-on, Insta-tastic make-up look as Kylie will buy her products anyways. The quality is not that bad, the pigments are strong and formulas tend to be decent. Still, the prices are exceptionally high when there are way better alternatives on the market.

Bloggers’ opinion for Fenty Beauty is overwhelmingly positive, especially from non-White- Caucasian vloggers who celebrate the diversity and affordability of the products.

In the end, this isn’t just another celebrity beauty range – it’s THE celebrity beauty range. Fenty has not only proved to be a commercial success, but it’s also changed the whole industry forever, as the vast majority of the leading cosmetic houses in Europe were not interested in the darker skin tones, and were only focused on the light-to-medium market instead.